3 comments:

We haven't even started the qualification yet but I would love that draw! Japan and Canada should be wiped off the map and playing against Argentina is always nice. Don't fancy Germany in the second round though, but after last week I'll take Croatia!

Personally I hope FIFA changes the seeding rules a little. I think too much emphasis is placed on the past. So what if a team played good in the last two World Cups. There might be one or two players that played in those tournaments still playing in today's teams. So why credit them for that? Surely more emphasis should be placed on how good the teams are now, than how good they were in the distant past? If those top 8 seeds are really that good, surely they should qualify even if they were second or third seeds??? Now that FIFA have revamped their rankings and seem to have more trust in them (i.e. insisting teams are seeded for qualifying groups by using the rankings only!), hopefully they'll use the same system too for seeds at the finals. I'm not saying the FIFA rankings are perfect, but they're more perfect than deciding on the method that will be used AFTER knowing what teams have qualified. Personally I think it makes sense to only use the FIFA rankings. If FIFA don't, then they're just telling everyone else that the rankings aren't good enough.

Not taking anything away from your post. Nice to know you're keeping this up-to-date for which I myself just don't have enough time.

"I'm not saying the FIFA rankings are perfect, but they're more perfect than deciding on the method that will be used AFTER knowing what teams have qualified."

I remembered one of my older posts: link. For Germany 2006, FIFA used results from the last 2 WCs instead of 3. If Denmark had qualified, they would have been seeded at the expense of Argentina, but in that case I don't think FIFA would have changed the formula.